Brooklyn Spoke’s riposte to Ephron (the last link in today’s headlines) is the most scintillating piece about New York City and cycling I’ve seen in a long while.

krstrois

I agree. I’d say something, but he already said everything one could possibly say, and without being personally vicious. Way to go, Doug.

Papa Smurf

Did you know that long before Citi Bike, almost every corner in NYC had something blue on it? It’s true!

Clarke

I like Ephron’s argument involving newspaper boxes…as though DOT street redesigns created the free newspaper industry?

Jonathan R

I remember back in the early 90s hearing writing teachers suggest that having one’s personal essay published on the Times Op-Ed page was the acme of achievement in the personal-essay world. I bet the page editors are still getting hundreds of submissions daily.

So what’s the Times’s excuse for publishing these kind of vapid, meaning-free ramblings when there are presumably so many alternatives in their slush pile? If I want to read Delia Ephron’s random thoughts I’ll bookmark her blog.

Anonymous

Yes Brooklyn Spoke’s rebuttal is great–but the one point (made by Nicole Gelinas) not mentioned, that bears repeating, is that the intersection Ephron complains of has a dedicated bicycle signalhead with a split phase so that left-turning motor vehicles alternate, rather than conflicting with, bicycle traffic. In this google maps view, you see a van turning left across the bike path on a left turn green arrow, while the bike-form red signal governs bicycle traffic:

“To the left of the left turn lane is the bicycle lane. I hope you can visualize this because it’s nuts. The cars are making left turns into the bicycles.”

How lazy can you get, to denounce a traffic improvement without actually spending so much as a five-minute signal cycle observing how it actually works?

Keith Williams

You’d think the standards for someone with name-recognition would be much, much higher. I’m very disappointed in the NYT here.

Eric McClure

I guess Jim Walden and Seniors for Safety have no comment on Ethel Rubenstein’s death, eh?

Anonymous

Some years ago the Times opinion pages (online at least) used to say that they generally did hold the publication bar higher for pieces written by those already well-known. Didn’t seem to be true then, and certainly not now, now that they don’t bother making that claim anymore (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/14/opinion/op-ed-and-you.html?_r=0).

Anonymous

Some years ago the Times opinion pages (online at least) used to say that they generally did hold the publication bar higher for pieces written by those already well-known. Didn’t seem to be true then, and certainly not now, now that they don’t bother making that claim anymore (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/14/opinion/op-ed-and-you.html?_r=0).